Public debt charges calculator (update)

Within the framework of the 2019 electoral campaign, the PBO developed a tool allowing political parties to estimate the interest charges from their new proposals.

For example, if a party wants to implement a measure and its cost is financed by the public debt, then public debt charges will be added to the cost of said measure. Similarly, if a party wants to implement a measure with a net expected revenue, then the revenue would reduce the public debt and would therefore reduce the public debt charges.

To use the tool, the user must only enter in the appropriate boxes the expected revenue and spending associated with the measure(s) for which they want to estimate the cost in interest. Interest rates projected by the PBO are then applied to the difference between the revenue and the spending. As a result, the user will be able to see the cumulative surplus/deficit including public debt charges associated with one or more measures. The results are displayed over a 5-year horizon.